From a Melbourne rail professional who some say, has too much time on his hands, selected news and commentary to help preserve our enduring institutions and values, advance economic liberalism, social conservatism and other, sundry matters ... Online since 1999 ...

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Kevin Rudd’s plea to oil-producing nations to increase production to stave off further petrol price increases is another sign of his desperation, the Shadow Minister for Business Development, Independent Contractors and Consumer Affairs, Luke Hartsuyker, said today (Tuesday). “Motorists facing paying $1.70 a litre shouldn’t expect any help from this quarter,” Mr Hartsuyker said. “They’re not going to listen to this plea from the Prime Minister, particularly as he’s out of step with the Group of Eight major industrial nations who are concentrating instead on improving fuel efficiency. “Having led the voters during the election campaign to believe he was going to reduce petrol prices, it’s another sign of his desperation on the issue. Read more here ...

FuelWatchMeant to deliver cheaper petrol, this $20 million baby - due for launch in December - is believed likely (by four government departments) to instead make petrol more expensive. The way FuelWatch works, see, is that petrol stations all tell a Big Government Website what their prices will be for the next 24 hours - this is locked in, which is the problem - and you drive home whenever you’re low on fuel and check out the site and then drive over to wherever the cheapest petrol station is. You know, if there was such a demand for a cheap-fuel site someone might already have come up with one. And they have! According to MotorMouth.com.au (a private site that gets by on advertising) the cheapest petrol in my area is $1.53 per litre at the Caltex on Alison Rd. MotorMouth has been around for eight years. It was previously known as FuelWatch.

GroceryWatchSimilar to FuelWatch, except it will apply to turnips instead of unleaded. Unlike previous generations, who knew nothing about grocery prices except if they picked up a daily newspaper and looked at full-page ads, lucky Ruddlings will one day be able to dial up a Government-funded website to get all the latest chicken and noodle news. It’s conceivable that a nationwide army of grocery monitors might cost something themselves. Labor senator Kate Lundy ran her own little GroceryWatch site before the 2007 election, focusing on a few ACT supermarkets. She apparently gave it up on October 9 after reporting that the Woolworths in Dickson was charging $4 less for bread, milk, eggs, bananas and lamb chops than it had in mid-August.

"This morning Mr Rudd pledged to give the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) power to monitor the rising cost of groceries and to publish the average prices. Formally launching his policy this morning, Mr Rudd said the rising costs of grocery bills, child care and petrol were hurting Australian families. "The increasing cost of living is felt most sharply by families at the local supermarket," he said. "While the prices of many goods and services go up and down, over the past five years families have generally seen the prices of everyday goods like bread, fruit and vegetables go up, and up and up. "When families fill up their basket and trollies at the local supermarket, they should not have to fear they're getting a raw deal through inflated grocery prices."

It was Kevin Rudd's main election strategy - to ease pressure on household budgets - a strategy that's all but collapsed just six months into his administration. Fuelwatch, GroceryWatch ... More like RuddWatch!

About Me

Generally, I'm known to most nearly all as Otto, my everyday designation, though my birth name is Ottavio. In addition to what I have stated in "about blog", I am partial to free market driven economies, free trade principles and the freedom for individuals to structure their own lives without Government interference. I would staunchly advocate that the "individual" is greater than any collective. I am socially conservative and support traditional morality and social structure. I champion fiscally conservative Governments - economic liberalism. However, not the subject of this blog, I also campaign for the continuance and preservation of global American dominance. I enjoy writing about that which interests me; I do so to impart knowledge and understanding, and to put both an individual spin and my own distinctive sensibility and perception on my chosen subject matter.

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This blog both embraces and advocates a, pro-small government and, pro-free market approach to Australian public policy and the views. It rejects the contemporary notion that government is all-powerful, and that it can solve all our problems. It rejects the nanny state, excessive government interference in our lives, more taxes, more regulation and more public spending. It rejects the present Australian (Labor-Agrarian-Socialist-Independent) government coupled with its pompous dependency on the economically shallow Greens. It embraces a political philosophy, social and educational regime and/or attitude emphasizing respect for traditional institutions, distrust of government activism, and opposition to change, for changes sake to the established order. A view that recognises and defends the connection existing between members of an ethnic group based on shared ancestry, culture, religion, history and language. A view that questions political correctness. A view that recognises and defends our masculine identity as men or feminine identity as women, our role as fathers and mothers or husbands and wives within a traditional family based on a heterosexual union. A view that recognises and defends marital love and paternal & maternal love.

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This is a free speech zone

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
These words were first used by Hall, writing under the pseudonym of Stephen G. Tallentyre in The Friends of Voltaire (1906). They were not a quote, but a paraphrase of Voltaire's attitudes, based on his Essay on Tolerance where he asserts: "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too".
Its ultimate origin may lie in a letter to M. le Riche (February 6, 1770): "Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." Source